En garde!
Weaver ants attack
to protect
their territory
782
INTRUDERS from a neighbor colony
Trigger defense and attack maneuvers
among residentweavers, turningmere
twigs into battlefields. Confrontinga
stranger,left foreground, a worker
displays hostility with gaping mandibles
and abdomen cocked, ready to spray
blisteringformic acid. For seconds the
two box, extending their legs and
circlingeach otherjerkily. Next they may
seize each other in a to-the-death
NationalGeographic,June 1984